New Zealand composer Simon Eastwood cites a wide range of influences on his works from Popular Culture to European Modernism, but also draws upon music from a variety cultures around the Pacific Rim. He has had works performed around the world by a variety of artists including Franck Ollu, CHROMA, Christopher Redgate, Stroma, and The BBC Singers. In 2009, Simon’s work The Spindle of Necessity was chosen to represent New Zealand at the Asian Composer’s League Festival in Korea.

Simon gained a BMus from the New Zealand School of music in Wellington with first class honours in 2008 with majors in both Composition and Double Bass. In 2010, Simon travelled to London to study towards a Masters from the Royal Academy of Music studying with David Sawer and Sir Peter-Maxwell Davies. After graduating from RAM with distinction in 2012, he went on to participate in a number of residencies in the UK, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Lithuania before returning home to Wellington in 2015 where he currently lives as a teacher and freelancer.